There is current uncertainty regarding the effects of mergers on pharmaceutical R&D productivity, with various mechanisms reported by which mergers could either help or harm R&D, and mixed empirical findings in prior analyses. Here, we present an analysis that is novel in several ways: we use downstream measures of R&D productivity, account for both inputs and outputs in our calculations, and use a self-controlled design. We find that recent large pharmaceutical mergers are associated with statistically significant increases in R&D productivity. These results are perhaps not surprising in light of the broader literature on R&D productivity that points to two factors as instrumental in driving higher R&D productivity (depth of scientific information, and objectivity of decision-making based on that information), both of which could be expected to increase because of a merger.

当前关于合并对药物研发生产率影响的不确定性，据报导各种机制可以帮助或损害研发，并且在先前的分析中混合了实证研究结果。在这里，我们以几种方式提出新颖的分析：我们使用研发生产率的下游度量，在计算中考虑投入和产出，并使用自控设计。我们发现，最近的大型医药行业合并与研发生产率的统计显着提高相关。鉴于有关R＆D生产率的文献更为广泛，这些结果可能不足为奇，该文献指出了两个因素有助于提高R＆D生产率（科学信息的深度和基于该信息的决策的客观性），